# XIII: To the Greeks Foolishness explained — The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane

> Chapter companion for The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane by Mark Rutherford.

## What happens

Zachariah Coleman's wife falls ill with a fever, but he must attend a club meeting finalizing plans for the Blanketeers' March. The march fails at Stockport, and Major Maitland is killed. Zachariah receives a warning to flee, and with Mrs. Carter's help, he leaves Manchester, encountering a starving weaver and finding shelter in a barn before heading to Liverpool.

## Themes in this chapter

### Suffering and Resilience

Zachariah's wife's illness, the starving weaver, and the marchers' endurance despite failure.

### Social Class and Inequality

The overseer and parson's cruel treatment of the starving weaver; the impossibility of decent illness for the poor.

### Religion and Hypocrisy

The parson's judgmental response to the weaver, contrasting with the Methodist weaver's faith.

### Political Reform and Revolution

The Blanketeers' March as a failed reform effort; discussion of premature revolt as progenitor of success.

## Character check-ins

### Zachariah Coleman

Attends the club meeting, cares for his ill wife, flees Manchester after the march's failure.

### Mrs. Coleman

Lies ill with fever; Zachariah leaves her in Mrs. Carter's care.

### Carter

Neighbor who offers to nurse Mrs. Coleman and helps Zachariah flee.

### Major Maitland

Accompanies the Blanketeers' March and is killed.

### Jean Caillaud

Draws lots with Zachariah to accompany the march; the lot falls on him.

### Pauline

Leaves a warning note for Zachariah to flee.

### William Ogden

His office is shut when Zachariah seeks him.

## Key lines

> The mere discomforts of poverty are bad enough—the hunger and cold of it—but worse than all is the impossibility of being decently ill, or decently dying, or of paying any attention to those who take it into their heads to be ill or to die.

Poverty's worst aspect is not just hunger and cold, but the inability to be sick or die with dignity, or to care for sick loved ones.

_Highlights the theme of social class and inequality._

> It is a poor religion which makes no provision for disaster, and even for apparently final failure. The test of faith is its power under defeat, and these silly God-fearing souls argued to themselves that their Master's time was not their time; that perhaps they were being punished for their sins, and that when it pleased Him they would triumph.

A weak religion cannot handle disaster; true faith is tested by defeat, and the marchers believed God's timing was different and that their suffering might be punishment for sin.

_Reflects on religion and resilience in the face of failure._

> It is a commonplace that a premature outbreak puts back the hands of the clock and is a blunder. Nine times out of ten this is untrue, and a revolt instantaneously quenched in blood is not merely the precursor, but the direct progenitor of success.

Conventional wisdom says early revolts set back progress, but often a quickly crushed rebellion actually leads to later success.

_Commentary on political reform and revolution._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/chapters/xiii-to-the-greeks-foolishness
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- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/chapters